Robust and Flexible Persistent Scatterer Interferometry for Long-Term and Large-Scale Displacement Monitoring

Die Persistent Scatterer Interferometrie (PSI) ist eine Methode zur Überwachung von Verschiebungen der Erdoberfläche aus dem Weltraum. Sie basiert auf der Identifizierung und Analyse von stabilen Punktstreuern (sog. Persistent Scatterer, PS) durch die Anwendung von Ansätzen der Zeitreihenanalyse auf Stapel von SAR-Interferogrammen. PS Punkte dominieren die Rückstreuung der Auflösungszellen, in denen sie sich befinden, und werden durch geringfügige Dekorrelation charakterisiert. Verschiebungen solcher PS Punkte können mit einer potenziellen Submillimetergenauigkeit überwacht werden, wenn Störquellen effektiv minimiert werden. Im Laufe der Zeit hat sich die PSI in bestimmten Anwendungen zu einer operationellen Technologie entwickelt. Es gibt jedoch immer noch herausfordernde Anwendungen für die Methode. Physische Veränderungen der Landoberfläche und Änderungen in der Aufnahmegeometrie können dazu führen, dass PS Punkte im Laufe der Zeit erscheinen oder verschwinden. Die Anzahl der kontinuierlich kohärenten PS Punkte nimmt mit zunehmender Länge der Zeitreihen ab, während die Anzahl der TPS Punkte zunimmt, die nur während eines oder mehrerer getrennter Segmente der analysierten Zeitreihe kohärent sind. Daher ist es wünschenswert, die Analyse solcher TPS Punkte in die PSI zu integrieren, um ein flexibles PSI-System zu entwickeln, das in der Lage ist mit dynamischen Veränderungen der Landoberfläche umzugehen und somit ein kontinuierliches Verschiebungsmonitoring ermöglicht. Eine weitere Herausforderung der PSI besteht darin, großflächiges Monitoring in Regionen mit komplexen atmosphärischen Bedingungen durchzuführen. Letztere führen zu hoher Unsicherheit in den Verschiebungszeitreihen bei großen Abständen zur räumlichen Referenz. Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit Modifikationen und Erweiterungen, die auf der Grund lage eines bestehenden PSI-Algorithmus realisiert wurden, um einen robusten und flexiblen PSI-Ansatz zu entwickeln, der mit den oben genannten Herausforderungen umgehen kann. Als erster Hauptbeitrag wird eine Methode präsentiert, die TPS Punkte vollständig in die PSI integriert. In Evaluierungsstudien mit echten SAR Daten wird gezeigt, dass die Integration von TPS Punkten tatsächlich die Bewältigung dynamischer Veränderungen der Landoberfläche ermöglicht und mit zunehmender Zeitreihenlänge zunehmende Relevanz für PSI-basierte Beobachtungsnetzwerke hat. Der zweite Hauptbeitrag ist die Vorstellung einer Methode zur kovarianzbasierten Referenzintegration in großflächige PSI-Anwendungen zur Schätzung von räumlich korreliertem Rauschen. Die Methode basiert auf der Abtastung des Rauschens an Referenzpixeln mit bekannten Verschiebungszeitreihen und anschließender Interpolation auf die restlichen PS Pixel unter Berücksichtigung der räumlichen Statistik des Rauschens. Es wird in einer Simulationsstudie sowie einer Studie mit realen Daten gezeigt, dass die Methode überlegene Leistung im Vergleich zu alternativen Methoden zur Reduktion von räumlich korreliertem Rauschen in Interferogrammen mittels Referenzintegration zeigt. Die entwickelte PSI-Methode wird schließlich zur Untersuchung von Landsenkung im Vietnamesischen Teil des Mekong Deltas eingesetzt, das seit einigen Jahrzehnten von Landsenkung und verschiedenen anderen Umweltproblemen betroffen ist. Die geschätzten Landsenkungsraten zeigen eine hohe Variabilität auf kurzen sowie großen räumlichen Skalen. Die höchsten Senkungsraten von bis zu 6 cm pro Jahr treten hauptsächlich in städtischen Gebieten auf. Es kann gezeigt werden, dass der größte Teil der Landsenkung ihren Ursprung im oberflächennahen Untergrund hat. Die präsentierte Methode zur Reduzierung von räumlich korreliertem Rauschen verbessert die Ergebnisse signifikant, wenn eine angemessene räumliche Verteilung von Referenzgebieten verfügbar ist. In diesem Fall wird das Rauschen effektiv reduziert und unabhängige Ergebnisse von zwei Interferogrammstapeln, die aus unterschiedlichen Orbits aufgenommen wurden, zeigen große Übereinstimmung. Die Integration von TPS Punkten führt für die analysierte Zeitreihe von sechs Jahren zu einer deutlich größeren Anzahl an identifizierten TPS als PS Punkten im gesamten Untersuchungsgebiet und verbessert damit das Beobachtungsnetzwerk erheblich. Ein spezieller Anwendungsfall der TPS Integration wird vorgestellt, der auf der Clusterung von TPS Punkten basiert, die innerhalb der analysierten Zeitreihe erschienen, um neue Konstruktionen systematisch zu identifizieren und ihre anfängliche Bewegungszeitreihen zu analysieren

Long-term monitoring of geodynamic surface deformation using SAR interferometry

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2014Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) is a powerful tool to measure surface deformation and is well suited for surveying active volcanoes using historical and existing satellites. However, the value and applicability of InSAR for geodynamic monitoring problems is limited by the influence of temporal decorrelation and electromagnetic path delay variations in the atmosphere, both of which reduce the sensitivity and accuracy of the technique. The aim of this PhD thesis research is: how to optimize the quantity and quality of deformation signals extracted from InSAR stacks that contain only a low number of images in order to facilitate volcano monitoring and the study of their geophysical signatures. In particular, the focus is on methods of mitigating atmospheric artifacts in interferograms by combining time-series InSAR techniques and external atmospheric delay maps derived by Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models. In the first chapter of the thesis, the potential of the NWP Weather Research & Forecasting (WRF) model for InSAR data correction has been studied extensively. Forecasted atmospheric delays derived from operational High Resolution Rapid Refresh for the Alaska region (HRRRAK) products have been compared to radiosonding measurements in the first chapter. The result suggests that the HRRR-AK operational products are a good data source for correcting atmospheric delays in spaceborne geodetic radar observations, if the geophysical signal to be observed is larger than 20 mm. In the second chapter, an advanced method for integrating NWP products into the time series InSAR workflow is developed. The efficiency of the algorithm is tested via simulated data experiments, which demonstrate the method outperforms other more conventional methods. In Chapter 3, a geophysical case study is performed by applying the developed algorithm to the active volcanoes of Unimak Island Alaska (Westdahl, Fisher and Shishaldin) for long term volcano deformation monitoring. The volcano source location at Westdahl is determined to be approx. 7 km below sea level and approx. 3.5 km north of the Westdahl peak. This study demonstrates that Fisher caldera has had continuous subsidence over more than 10 years and there is no evident deformation signal around Shishaldin peak.Chapter 1. Performance of the High Resolution Atmospheric Model HRRR-AK for Correcting Geodetic Observations from Spaceborne Radars -- Chapter 2. Robust atmospheric filtering of InSAR data based on numerical weather prediction models -- Chapter 3. Subtle motion long term monitoring of Unimak Island from 2003 to 2010 by advanced time series SAR interferometry -- Chapter 4. Conclusion and future work

Ground-based synthetic aperture radar (GBSAR) interferometry for deformation monitoring

Ph. D ThesisGround-based synthetic aperture radar (GBSAR), together with interferometry, represents a powerful tool for deformation monitoring. GBSAR has inherent flexibility, allowing data to be collected with adjustable temporal resolutions through either continuous or discontinuous mode. The goal of this research is to develop a framework to effectively utilise GBSAR for deformation monitoring in both modes, with the emphasis on accuracy, robustness, and real-time capability. To achieve this goal, advanced Interferometric SAR (InSAR) processing algorithms have been proposed to address existing issues in conventional interferometry for GBSAR deformation monitoring. The proposed interferometric algorithms include a new non-local method for the accurate estimation of coherence and interferometric phase, a new approach to selecting coherent pixels with the aim of maximising the density of selected pixels and optimizing the reliability of time series analysis, and a rigorous model for the correction of atmospheric and repositioning errors. On the basis of these algorithms, two complete interferometric processing chains have been developed: one for continuous and the other for discontinuous GBSAR deformation monitoring. The continuous chain is able to process infinite incoming images in real time and extract the evolution of surface movements through temporally coherent pixels. The discontinuous chain integrates additional automatic coregistration of images and correction of repositioning errors between different campaigns. Successful deformation monitoring applications have been completed, including three continuous (a dune, a bridge, and a coastal cliff) and one discontinuous (a hillside), which have demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of the presented algorithms and chains for high-accuracy GBSAR interferometric measurement. Significant deformation signals were detected from the three continuous applications and no deformation from the discontinuous. The achieved results are justified quantitatively via a defined precision indicator for the time series estimation and validated qualitatively via a priori knowledge of these observing sites.China Scholarship Council (CSC), Newcastle Universit

Geodetic Imaging of Volcanic Deformation with Time Series Radar Interferometry

Volcanic hazards threaten millions of people in their vicinity worldwide. To mitigate the volcanic risk, we need to know which volcanoes are actively deforming and how much have they deformed. Ideally, ascending magma leads to surface uplift through elastic response, which can be precisely measured using the technique of interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) and inferred through geophysical inverse model, such as the point pressure source. In practice, the (de)pressurization process could have complex geometry in space and change nonlinearly in time, posing challenging for the deformation mapping and risk assessment afterwards. Here, I first develop algorithms to correct for phase unwrapping error in InSAR stack processing and merge them with other state-of-art algorithms to form a generic routine workflow, implement as the Miami INsar Time-series software in PYthon (MintPy). Then I demonstrate the power of this software by applying to the Kyushu Island in SW Japan using all available L-band SAR data from 1992 to 2019 and detect five out of eight actively deforming volcanoes in addition to subsidence due to anthropogenic activities. Next, I combine the radar imaging with geodetic modeling to study the shallow hydrothermal and magmatic systems in Kirishima volcanic complex during the recent unrest since 2008, covering the 2008-2010, 2011, 2017 and 2018 eruption at Shinmoe-dake and the 2018 eruption in Iwo-yama

Coseismic DInSAR Analysis of the 2020 Petrinja Earthquake Sequence

Interferometric SAR analysis provides an excellent opportunity to perform large-scale and rapid coseismic deformation mapping. Between December 28-30, 2020, three earthquakes with magnitudes greater than 4.3 occurred during the 2020 Petrinja Earthquake Sequence near Petrinja in Croatia, resulting in significant coseismic deformation. Considering both the available ascending and descending Sentinel-1A/B images preceding and following the Petrinja Earthquake Sequence, 2.5D differential interferometric analysis was performed to determine the resulting deformation field, which have significant importance in civil engineering related countermeasures and hazard assessment. With the applied methodology, the derived horizontal and vertical deformation fields can be characterized by a maximum of ±0.43 m local East-West, a maximum of 0.15 m local subsidence and a maximum of 0.19 m local vertical uplift near Petrinja

시계열 InSAR 기법을 사용하여 비정상적 해수면 상승 기록을 보인 조위관측소의 수직지반변위 평가

학위논문(박사) -- 서울대학교대학원 : 자연과학대학 지구환경과학부, 2021.8. 김덕진.Global sea level rise has been a serious threat to the low-lying coasts and islands around the world. It is important to understand the global and regional sea level changes for preventing the coastal zones. Tide gauges are installed around the world, which directly measures the change in sea level relative to the local datum. Sea level in the past three decades has risen to 1.8 mm/year compared to the sea level rise in the 20th century (3.35 mm/year), estimated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). However, along with the contributors of sea level rise, vertical land motion (VLM) is indeed an essential component for understanding the regional sea level change; however, its contribution remains still unclear. The VLM is referred to as change in elevation of land at tide gauge due to the regional and local processes by both natural and anthropogenic activities can deteriorate the sea level records and lead to spurious sea level acceleration. Assessing the vertical land motion at tide gauges with the accuracy of sub-millimeters is essential to reconstruct the global and regional sea level rise. Previous studies attempt to observe the vertical land movements at sparse locations through Global Positioning System (GPS). However, the VLM observed from the sparse GPS network makes the estimation uncertain. In this study, an alternative approach is proposed in this study to directly measure the relative vertical land motion including spatial and temporal variations through Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data by using time-series SAR interferometric (InSAR) techniques. This work presents a contribution enhancing the estimation of VLM rates with high spatial resolution over large area using time-series InSAR analysis. First, the C-band Interferometric Wide-swath (IW) mode SAR data from the Sentinel-1 A/B satellite was used in this study to estimate the VLM rates of tide gauges. The Sentinel-1 A/B SAR data were obtained during the period between 2014/10 and 2020/12 (~ 6 years). Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterers – Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (StaMPS-PSI) time-series InSAR algorithm was initially applied to the case study: Pohang tide gauge in the Korean peninsula for monitoring the stability of tide gauge station and its VLM rates during 2014 ~ 2017. For the Pohang tide gauge site, SAR data acquired in both ascending and descending passes and derived the ground movement rates at tide gauge along the line-of-sight direction. The vertical movements from the collocated POHA GPS station were compared with the InSAR derived VLM rates for determining the correlation between the two methods. The VLM rates at the Pohang tide gauge site were -25.5 mm/year during 2014 ~ 2017. This VLM rate at Pohang tide gauge derived by StaMPS-PSI estimates were from the strong dominant scatterers along the coastal regions. Second, for the terrains, with few dominant scatterers and more distributed scatters, a short temporal InSAR pair selection approach was introduced, referred as Sequential StaMPS-Small baselines subset (StaMPS-SBAS) was proposed in this study. Sequential StaMPS-SBAS forms the interferograms of short temporal sequential order (n = 5) to increase the initial pixel candidates on the natural terrains in the vicinity of tide gauges. Sentinel-1 A/B SAR data over ten tide gauges in the Korean peninsula having different terrain conditions were acquired during 2014 ~ 2020; and employed with sequential StaMPS-SBAS to estimate the VLM rates and time-series displacements. The initial pixel density has been doubled and ~ 1.25 times the final coherent pixels identified over the conventional StaMPS-SBAS analysis. Third, the potential for the fully automatic estimation of time-series VLM rates by sequential StaMPS-SBAS analysis was investigated. A fully automatic processing module referred to as ‘Seq-TInSAR’, was developed which has three modules 1) automatically downloads Sentinel-1 Single look complex (SLC) data, precise orbit files, and Digital Elevation Model (DEM); 2) SLC pre-processor: extract bursts, fine Coregistration and stacking and, 3) Sequential StaMPS-SBAS processor: estimates the VLM rates and VLM time-series. Finally, the Seq-TInSAR module is applied to the 100 tide gauges that exhibit abnormal sea level trend with par global mean sea level average. For each tide gauge site, 60 ~ 70 Sentinel-1 A/B SLC scenes were acquired and 300 ~ 350 sequential interferograms were processed to estimate the VLM at tide gauge stations. The final quantitative VLM rates and time-series VLM are estimated for the selected tide gauges stations. Based on the VLM rates, the tide gauges investigated in this study are categorized into different VLM ranges. The in-situ GPS observations available at 12 tide gauge stations were compared with InSAR VLM rates and found strong agreement, which suggests the proposed approach more reliable in measuring the spatial and temporal variations of VLM at tide gauges.전 세계적으로 발생하는 해수면 상승은 저지대 해안과 도서 지역에 심각한 위협으로 작용한다. 해안 지역을 보호하기 위해 전 지구 및 해당 지역의 해수면 변화를 이해하는 것은 대단히 중요하다. 조위 관측소는 전 세계에 설치되어 해당 지역 기준에 따른 해수면 변화를 직접 측정한다. 지난 30 년간 해수면은 IPCC (정부 간 기후 변화 패널)가 추정한 20 세기의 해수면 상승 (3.35mm / 년)대비 1.8mm / 년 가까이 상승하였다. 그러나 해수면 상승의 원인과 함께 연직 지반 운동 (VLM)은 지역 해수면 변화를 이해하는 데 필수적인 요소이지만 그 기여도는 여전히 불분명하다. VLM은 자연 활동과 인간 활동 모두에 의한 지역적 변화로 인해 조위 관측소에서 지반의 고도 변화로 정의되며 해수면 변화 정확도을 악화시키고 유사 해수면 변화의 가속을 초래할 수 있다. 전 세계 및 지역 해수면 상승을 재구성하려면 1 밀리미터 미만의 정확도로 조위 관측소에서 VLM을 평가하는 것이 필수적이다. 이전 연구는 GPS (Global Positioning System)를 통해 제한된 위치에서 VLM 을 관측하려고 시도하였으나 국소적인 GPS 신호들로부터 관측된 VLM으로는 그 추정이 불확실하다. 본 연구에서는 시계열 SAR 간섭계 (InSAR) 기법을 이용하여 SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) 데이터를 통해 공간적, 시간적 변화를 포함한 상대적 VLM을 직접 측정하기 위한 대안적 접근 방식을 제안한다. 이 작업은 시계열 InSAR 분석을 사용하여 광대역에 걸쳐 높은 공간 해상도로 VLM 속도의 추정을 향상시키는 데 기여한다. 첫째로, Sentinel-1 A / B 위성의 C-band Interferometric Wide-swath (IW) 모드 SAR 영상이 본 연구에서 조위 관측소의 VLM 속도를 추정하는 데 사용되었다. Sentinel-1 A / B SAR 영상은 2014 년 10 월부터 2020 년 12 월까지 (~ 6 년) 기간 동안 수집되었다. 고정 산란체를 위한 스탠포드 기법 – 고정 산란 간섭계 (StaMPS-PSI) 시계열 InSAR 알고리즘이 한반도 포항 조위 관측소의 2014 ~ 2017 년 동안의 조위 관측소의 안정성과 VLM 속도를 모니터링하기 위해 적용되었다. 포항 조위 관측소 부지의 경우, 위성궤도의 상승 및 하강 경로로 획득한 SAR 영상을 통해 시선 방향을 따라 조위 관측소에서의 지면 이동 속도를 도출하였다. 포항 GPS 관측소의 연직 이동은 두 기법 간의 상관성를 판단하기 위해 InSAR기법으로부터 추정된 VLM 속도와 비교되었다. 포항 조위 관측소의 VLM 속도는 2014 ~ 2017 년의 기간 동안 -25.5mm / 년으로 관측되었다. StaMPS-PSI 추정에 의해 도출 된 포항 조위 관측소의 VLM 속도은 해안 지역의 강한 산란 체에서 기인한다. 둘째로, 강한 산란체가 수가 적고 분산된 산란체가 더 많은 지형의 경우, 본 연구에서 Sequential StaMPS-Small baselines (StaMPS-SBAS)이라는 하는 단기 InSAR 쌍의 선택에 의한 접근 방식이 제안되었다. Sequential StaMPS-SBAS는 짧은 시간 범위(n = 5)의 간섭계 영상을 형성하여 조위 관측소 부근의 자연 지형에서 변화가 적은 화소 선택을 증가시킨다. Sentinel-1 A / B SAR 영상은 2014 년 ~ 2020 년 사이에 서로 다른 지형 조건을 가진 한반도의 10 개 조위 관측소에서 수집되었으며, VLM 속도 및 시계열 변위를 추정하기 위해 Sequential StaMPS-SBAS와 함께 사용되었다. 초기 화소 밀도는 기존 StaMPS-SBAS 분석을 통해 확인 된 최종적인 불변화소 밀도의 약 1.25 배와 두 배로 도출되었다. 셋째로, Sequential StaMPS-SBAS 분석에 의한 시계열 VLM 비율의 완전한 자동 추정 가능성을 조사하였다. Seq-TInSAR라고하는 완전한 자동 처리 모듈이 개발되었으며, 3 개의 하위 모듈로 구성되어있다. 1) Sentinel-1 SLC (Single Look Complex) 영상, 정밀한 궤도 정보 및 DEM (Digital Elevation Model)의 자동 다운로드 2) SLC 전 처리기 : 영상 별 Burst 추출, 정밀한 통합 및 Stacking, 3) Sequential StaMPS-SBAS 프로세서 : VLM 속도 및 VLM 시계열 변위의 추정 마지막으로, Seq-TInSAR 모듈은 동위 평균 해수면 평균으로 비정상적인 해수면 추세를 보이는 100 개의 조위 관측소에 적용된다. 조위 관측소 지점별로 60 ~ 70 개의 Sentinel-1 A / B SLC 영상을 획득하고 300 ~ 350 개의 시계열 간섭계 영상을 처리하여 조위 관측소에서 VLM을 추정하였다. 정량적인 VLM 속도와 시계열 VLM은 선정한 조위 관측소에 대해 추정하였다. VLM 속도을 기반으로 본 연구에서 도출한 조위 관측소는 다양한 VLM 범위로 분류된다. 12 개의 조위 관측소에서 취득한 현장 GPS 관측 자료를 InSAR로부터 추정한 VLM 비율과 비교하여 강력한 상관성을 찾았고, 이는 본 연구에서 제안한 접근 방식이 조위 관측소에서 VLM의 공간적 및 시간적 변화를 측정하는데 신뢰할 수 있는 자료로 사용될 수 있음을 시사한다.Chapter 1. Introduction 1 1.1. Brief overview of sea-level rise 1 1.2. Motivations 4 1.3. Purpose of Research 9 1.4. Outline 12 Chapter 2. Sea Level variations and Estimation of Vertical land motion 14 2.1. Sea level variations 14 2.2. Sea level observations 14 2.3. Long term sea level estimation 19 2.4. Factors contributing tide gauge records: Vertical Land Motion 19 2.5. Brief overview of InSAR and Time-series SAR Interferometry 24 Chapter 3. Vertical Land Motion estimation at Tide gauge using Time-series PS-InSAR technique: A case study for Pohang tide gauge 36 3.1. Background 36 3.2. VLM estimation at Pohang tide gauge using StaMPS-PSI analysis 38 3.3. Development of StaMPS-SBAS InSAR using Sequential InSAR pair selection suitable for coastal environments 55 3.4. Discussion 80 Chapter 4. Application of time-series Sequential-SBAS InSAR for Vertical Land Motion estimation at selected tide gauges around the world using Sentinel-1 SAR data 85 4.1. Description of PSMSL tide gauge data 87 4.2. Sentinel-1 A/B SAR data acquisitions 92 4.3. Automatic Time-series InSAR processing module ”Seq-TInSAR” 93 4.4. Results: Estimation of vertical land motions at selected tide gauges 97 4.5. Comparison of InSAR results with GNSS observations 112 4.6. Discussion 125 Chapter 5. Conclusions and Future Perspectives 128 Abstract in Korean 133 Appendix – A 136 Appendix – B 146 Bibliography 151박

Radar Interferometry for Monitoring Crustal Deformation. Geodetic Applications in Greece

The chapatti and breadmaking quality of nine (eight Indian and one Australian) wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars was compared. The extension of a chapatti strip measured with a Kieffer dough extensibility rig correlated with chapatti scores for overall quality (r = 0.84), pliability (r = 0.91), hand feel (r = 0.72), chapatti eating quality (r = 0.68), and taste (r = 0.80). Overall chapatti quality also correlated with the resistance to extension of a chapatti strip (r = 0.68) when tested for uniaxial extension with a texture analyzer. The texture analyzer provided objectivity in the scoring of chapatti quality. The high-molecular-weight glutenin subunit protein composition assessed by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis did not correlate with the overall chapatti score. A negative correlation was found between chapatti and bread scores (r = 0.77). The different requirements for chapatti and bread quality complicate the breeding of new wheat varieties and the exchange of germplasm between regions producing wheat for chapatti and those supplying bread producers

Advanced exploitation of Sentinel-1 data for supporting landslide risk analysis

Tesi en modalitat de compendi de publicacionsSatellite Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) and Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) are now consolidated tools for ground movement detection and monitoring. Sentinel-1 (S1) is the first satellite providing free data access and ensuring a regular acquisition worldwide, every 6 days, increasing its potential for long-term monitoring applications. Several regional and national ground motion services are already active, providing products based on S1 data. Soon in 2022 the first European Ground Motion Service (EGMS) will be available and freely provide a displacement map over the whole Europe, with annual updates. This implies a strong expansion of availability of PSI-based displacement maps and an easy access for anyone, with an increasing interest among a wider range of users, including public or governmental institutions, academia, industry, and citizens. The analysis and interpretation of this amount of data is difficult and time consuming, mostly for non-expert InSAR users. The objective of this work is developing methodologies to simplify the operational use of PSI displacement maps, generating derived products with a clear message, easy-to-interpret, and fast to read. We propose a method to be applied over regional scale PSI displacement maps, to fast detect the most significant Active Deformation Areas (ADAs). The ADA map is a first product that allows a fast focusing on the active areas, to prioritize further analysis and investigation. Starting from the ADAs, the potential phenomena are attributed to each area through a preliminary interpretation based on auxiliary data, to derive the Geohazard Activity Map. In this work, a methodology to include the ADA information in the Civil Protection Activities is proposed, with the main output called Vulnerable Elements Activity Maps (VEAM). An application of the VEAM is illustrated in the Canary Islands. Furthermore, the ADA map is used in the Valle d'Aosta Region (Northern of Italy) to generate vulnerability and potential loss maps. Finally, a methodology to derive potential damage maps of the exposed buildings, based on the spatial gradients of movement, is proposed, and applied in a coastal area of the Province of Granada (Spain). A pack of software tools has been developed based on the proposed methods to extract ADA and then classify them to generate a Geohazard Activity Map. The set of tools is called ADATools, it is open-access, easy to use and fast, improving the operational exploitation of PSI regional-scale displacement maps. All the methodologies have been developed in the frame of several European projects (Safety, U-Geohaz, MOMIT and RISKCOAST), and are aimed at supporting the multi-scale territorial management and risk analysis activities, with a specific focus on landslides.La interferometría satelital radar (InSAR) y la interferometría de dispersores persistentes (PSI) son herramientas consolidadas para la detección y el monitoreo de movimientos de la superficie de la Tierra. Sentinel-1 (S1) es el primer satélite que proporciona acceso gratuito a los datos y garantiza una adquisición regular en todo el mundo, cada 6 días, aumentando su potencial para aplicaciones de monitoreo a largo plazo. Varios Ground Motion Services regionales y nacionales ya están activos, proporcionando productos basados en datos S1. Pronto, en 2022, el primer servicio europeo (European Ground Motion Service - EGMS) estará disponible y facilitará libremente un mapa de movimientos de toda Europa, con actualizaciones anuales. Esto implica un aumento de la disponibilidad de mapas de movimientos basados en PSI y un fácil acceso para cualquier persona, con un interés creciente entre una amplia gama de usuarios, incluyendo instituciones públicas o gubernamentales, academias, industrias y ciudadanos. El análisis e interpretación de esta cantidad de datos es difícil y consume mucho tiempo, mayormente para usuarios no expertos en la técnica. El objetivo de este trabajo es desarrollar metodologías para simplificar el uso operativo de los mapas de desplazamiento PSI, generando productos derivados con un mensaje claro, fácil de interpretar, y rápido de leer. Se propone un método para detectar rápidamente las Áreas de Deformación Activas (ADAs) más significativas, a partir de mapas de desplazamiento PSI de escala regional. El mapa de las ADAs es un primer producto que permite un enfoque rápido en las áreas activas, útil para priorizar el análisis y las investigaciones adicionales. A partir de las ADAs, se propone una interpretación preliminar basada en datos auxiliares, que atribuye a cada área el fenómeno que está detrás del movimiento, generando el Geohazard Activity Map (GAM). Después, se propone una metodología para incluir la información de las ADAs en las actividades de protección civil, generando los Vulnerable Element Activity Maps (VEAM), a través de su aplicación en las Islas Canarias. Además, el mapa de las ADAs se utiliza en la región de Valle D'Aosta (norte de Italia) para generar mapas de vulnerabilidad y posibles pérdidas económicas. Finalmente, se propone una metodología para obtener mapas de daños potenciales de los edificios expuestos, basados en los gradientes espaciales de movimiento, y se aplica en un área costera de la provincia de Granada (España). A partir de los métodos propuestos para extraer y clasificar las ADAs, y de otros métodos de análisis existentes, se ha desarrollado un paquete de herramientas, los ADAtools, de acceso abierto, fáciles de usar y rápidas, que optimizan la explotación operativa de los mapas de desplazamiento de escala regional. Todas las metodologías se han desarrollado en el marco de varios proyectos europeos (Safety, U-Geohaz, MOMIT y RISKCOAST), y están dirigidos a apoyar las actividades de gestión territorial y análisis de riesgos, con un enfoque específico a los deslizamientos de tierra.Postprint (published version

Advances on the investigation of landslides by space-borne synthetic aperture radar interferometry

Landslides are destructive geohazards to people and infrastructure, resulting in hundreds of deaths and billions of dollars of damage every year. Therefore, mapping the rate of deformation of such geohazards and understanding their mechanics is of paramount importance to mitigate the resulting impacts and properly manage the associated risks. In this paper, the main outcomes relevant to the joint European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) Dragon-5 initiative cooperation project ID 59,339 “Earth observation for seismic hazard assessment and landslide early warning system” are reported. The primary goals of the project are to further develop advanced SAR/InSAR and optical techniques to investigate seismic hazards and risks, detect potential landslides in wide regions, and demonstrate EO-based landslide early warning system over selected landslides. This work only focuses on the landslide hazard content of the project, and thus, in order to achieve these objectives, the following tasks were developed up to now: a) a procedure for phase unwrapping errors and tropospheric delay correction; b) an improvement of a cross-platform SAR offset tracking method for the retrieval of long-term ground displacements; c) the application of polarimetric SAR interferometry (PolInSAR) to increase the number and quality of monitoring points in landslide-prone areas; d) the semiautomatic mapping and preliminary classification of active displacement areas on wide regions; e) the modeling and identification of landslides in order to identify triggering factors or predict future displacements; and f) the application of an InSAR-based landslide early warning system on a selected site. The achieved results, which mainly focus on specific sensitive regions, provide essential assets for planning present and future scientific activities devoted to identifying, mapping, characterizing, monitoring and predicting landslides, as well as for the implementation of early warning systems.This work was supported by the ESA-MOST China DRAGON-5 project with ref. 59339, by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, the State Agency of Research (AEI), and the European Funds for Regional Development under grant [grant number PID2020-117303GB-C22], by the Conselleria de Innovación, Universidades, Ciencia y Sociedad Digital in the framework of the project CIAICO/2021/335, by the Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers 41874005 and 41929001], the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central University [grant numbers 300102269712 and 300102269303], and China Geological Survey Project [grant numbers DD20190637 and DD20190647]. Xiaojie Liu and Liuru Hu have been funded by Chinese Scholarship Council Grants Ref. [grant number 202006560031] and [grant number 202004180062], respectively